Dirty blogs

-or- not what you may have thought

Published on March 25, 2006 By BlueDev In Blogging

This shouldn't really come as a surprise, but I enjoy blogging. I enjoy writing blogs and I really enjoy reading the blogs of others. When I have the time, I enjoy surfing random blogs using such services as Blog Explosion or BlogMad. I also avail myself of the traffic generating features of those services as well, but to be quite honest, that matters less to me than it used to.

For those unfamiliar with those services, you surf the blogs of people who have signed up and earn credits for each page you view. These credits, in turn, can be used to get your blogs to show up in the rotation of blogs being viewed. Each service has a "ticker" that forces you to view a blog for a certain amount of time (ranging from 20-30 seconds in the sites I have used) before you can move on to the next blog if you want to earn credit for viewing that blog.

And so, often, I will open multiple tabs in Maxthon and be surfing multiple blogs at the same time. In doing so, I have been fortunate enough to come across some really great blogs. But I have also noticed something.

There are a lot of dirty blogs out there in the blogosphere.

And by dirty I don't mean vulgar, profane, pornographic (I am sure there are plenty of those, but I choose to have my surfing settings avoid those ones). By dirty I mean cluttered, busy, confusing. It is astounding the number of blogs I have surfed to that have a grimy layer of ads, links, banners, buttons, and just general garbage before I ever even get an entry.

If I can't see a decent portion of the blogger's most recent entry without having to scroll my browser window, I refuse to even look at the blog. And it isn't as if I have a little browser window. I don't have it maximized, but since I run my resolution at 1600x1200, my browser window is usually around 1280x960. In other words, my browser window is plenty large.

I know that there are ways to "make money" from your blog (I put that in parentheses because, really, how much money do you think individuals really make from their blogs?). I also know it is fun to have lots of little gizmos and gadgets in your sidebar (heck, I have a cool little Flickr badge with some fun photos in my Blogger blog). But when they become this huge monstrosity, filled with maps, buttons of all sorts of different sites, photos, playlists, friends, archives, links, etc. I just stop looking.

For me, the joy of blogging (and reading blogs) is getting to read the thoughts, ideas, and works of other people who I wouldn't get to read otherwise. But when those thoughts get buried under a barrage of AdSense ads, banners and links, the effort and frustration to find them often outweighs the payoff.

Or maybe I am just lazy.

Comments

Dr Guy

on Mar 25, 2006

No, not lazy. I dont blog for money, and I really dont understand those who do. For yea, you an earn a few bucks, but it in no way pays you for your time. So why do it? If you want to make money, find another venue. Even flipping burgers will be more profitable.

BlueDev

on Mar 25, 2006

Even flipping burgers will be more profitable.

Bingo. I promise, there is no way you can even make $5.15/hour blogging. I mean, come on. Brad told us how much JU made from the Google ads. Next to nothing. I make more than that in an hour of translating. And they don't pay me squat.

And when those ads make the blog unreadable, well it sort of defeats the purpose if you ask me.

crimson

on Mar 26, 2006

Actually, one of the main reasons why I blog primarily at Joeuser (aside from all the good people, natch) is that it is pop-up free. It's why I hate MySpace, although I have a site there, too.

For me, the joy of blogging (and reading blogs) is getting to read the thoughts, ideas, and works of other people who I wouldn't get to read otherwise.

This is why I strongly push the My Favorites section on people here. There's nothing that says you can only link Joeuser blogs. I've got some site favorites up, and am going to start linking other regular blogs that I read.

It's nice to update every once in awhile, too. I've noticed that many of us still having links to Joeusers who haven't blogged in at least a year. hehehe.

dynamaso

on Mar 26, 2006

If I was getting paid for my blogs, it would feel like work. The reason I blog is because I like to write. That is it. I don't have any grand ideas of changing the world or making a fortune. I simply like to write. And JU seems to be the best blog site for people such as me. No ads, no pop-ups, no bs. Just the way I want it.

mittens

on Mar 26, 2006

I think I've been blogging, in general, for about four-five years now. Mostly on my personal site with a lot of articles being cross-posted to my JU blog. Throughout all this time I've kind of transgressed more personal-centric blog posts to some, occasionally, more formal game-related (in development or just enjoying games) posts along with my occasional rambling posts. Throughout all this time I don't think I've ever even thought of making any sort of "profit" from the whole thing aside from just reading other people's responses to my entries. That's part of the reason that I've never really thought about nor have any plans to ever try and make money or try and find publicity for my personal site in any way. I wrote for me and I enjoy reading the comments related what I write.

Good entry, though. I don't often comment on articles here on JU (I'm just all sorts of selfish like that), but this was a nice read.

foreverserenity

on Mar 27, 2006

Me too! I blog because I love to write and I find it so soothing to my franzzled mind. I also love to read and discuss with you guys. Plus you guys are all so funny, and honest and you are all so open about your own lives which is refreshing.

Gideon MacLeish

on Mar 27, 2006

As one who tries to earn a little extra from blogging (it's PRECIOUS little, believe me!), I see it not as an income source as much as a small extra stream of residual income for activity I'm already doing. I use adsense and linkshare, and haven't gotten rich off of either. Nothing so far off of linkshare, despite providing them with over 30,000 total page views, so that probably won't last much longer. I limit the linkshare affiliates to ad companies I myself would find helpful, probably the chief source of my problem.

I don't "do" popups or popunders. I find them offensive when I surf and assume others find them just as offensive.

There IS actually a trick to making significant money off of these ads, and I've kind of figured it out, but I'm not going to say much because I don't want to encourage MORE of these "dirty blogs".

Good article, BlueDev.

BlueDev

on Mar 27, 2006

Actually Gid, I have to give you credit. You have been able to do the ad thing without making your blogs too dirty. They pass the test. That is to say, I can see actual content without having to scroll.

Jetting Through Life

on Mar 27, 2006

Well written! How have you been??

XXOO,
JTL

Dr Guy

on Mar 27, 2006

Ditto! You are an inspiration to all those who say "I cant". As you DO.

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